Centurion launches buyers and sellers service
Centurion Partners has launched a service to bring the buyers and sellers of financial planning businesses together.
The launch of the service, Centurion Market Makers, followed a survey conducted by Centurion Partners in June indicating that many business owners were unsure of the options available to sell their company.
Many owners thought only their dealer could find an appropriate buyer. Failing that, they would turn to their family or business connections to buy their company.
Wayne Marsh, a director of Centurion, said: “By aggregating the buyers (large financial institutions and financial advice practices), we are delivering an opportunity for practices to sell by accessing a range of buyers efficiently. Given the transaction cost is met by the buyer, this is a particularly attractive service,” Marsh said.
Marsh added that business owners wanted someone to handle the entire sale process of their business from beginning to end, including finding buyers, and taxation and legal advice.
The survey, conducted among 37 business owners, also showed that an increasing number of financial planning businesses owners look for cultural fit over the best price when they sell their company to a new owner.
Many business owners considered other factors such as cultural fit — that the buyer will continue to provide a similar standard of service and advice — to be as important as or even more important than selling the business for the best price available.
“We call it the ‘golf club’ test,” said Chris Wrightson, also a director of Centurion.
“It is the ability to see your former clients at the golf club and know they are being looked after in a manner you and they expected.”
“Many believe sales negotiations stall because of price and terms. In my experience, however, the intangible ‘cultural fit’ is the main reason,” Wrightson added.
Recommended for you
With an advice M&A deal taking around six months to enact, two experts have shared their tips on how buyers and sellers can avoid “deal fatigue” and prevent potential deals from collapsing.
Several financial advisers have been shortlisted in the ninth annual Women in Finance Awards 2025, to be held on 14 November.
Digital advice tools are on the rise, but licensees will need to ensure they still meet adviser obligations or potentially risk a class action if clients lose money from a rogue algorithm.
Shaw and Partners has merged with Sydney wealth manager Kennedy Partners Wealth, while Ord Minnett has hired a private wealth adviser from Morgan Stanley.
